Journalists’ Roundtable 09-10-21: Audit Canvassers Release Findings, Brnovich: Tucson Mask Mandate Not OK, Most Support School Mask Mandates

Time now for the Journalists’ Roundtable and for a look at some of this week’s top stories, we welcome Howie Fischer of Capitol Media Services and Laurie Roberts of the Arizona Republic.

This week’s Journalists’ Roundtable covered:

• Audit Canvassers Release Findings
• Brnovich: Tucson Mask Mandate Not OK
• Poll: Most Support School Mask Mandates

Do Tucson employees have to be vaccinated?

Howie Fischer: “Employees had to be vaccinated but now the state is saying ‘You can’t do that.’ Here it is, it is the 10th of September for the law that takes effect on the 29th but we’re going to gloss that over. He basically said that the city is doing something that will be illegal in the future and therefore, we can say they are violating the law. This is to not only help the employees but to protect the people they interact with.

Laurie Roberts: “It takes just one state legislator, one, for the attorney general to drop everything and go investigate. He’s got a very tight time and then it’s an appeal to the Supreme Court. One thing that’s interesting, Howie mentioned that Tucson is violating a law that is not a law, another piece of this is that when everybody, the governor, Republicans and the legislature relaize that this model doesn’t take effect until September 29, Governor Ducey quickly came up with an emergency order to block Tucson from doing what it is.”

What does the Governor’s emergency power do?

Howie Fischer: “If you look at the basis for the governor’s emergency power, besides something to help cope, this is like the governor lashing out at universities for imposing mask mandates when the law he signs doesn’t even prevent that.”

Laurie Roberts: “The governor is upset that the President is dictating rules on Covid and I’m wondering if the cities and schools are saying ‘Ducey what have you been doing for us the past 18 months?'”